Lately for whatever reason I have been craving these "trendy" burger franchises like 5 Guys Burgers and Smashburger. I kept hearing how good they are, but never really had the chance to try them because the locations are not close to me. They seem to be the new "Subway" and popping up everywhere.
Anyways, last week I got to try 5 Guys. Pretty good, fresh toppings and fresh cut homemade style fries which I like. The place was pretty packed. Then the other day I drove out of my way to try Smashburger. Thumbs down for Smashburger. It was very average, and the fries were obviously cheap frozen type. Tasted just like Sonic and Dairy Queen fries. Gross. I would never go there again. Not like all greasy burgers and fries are not, but some times you just have to live a little and sometimes they just hit the spot.
OK, so I got to try them and got that out of my system. But I was left wondering why none of these burger places had a location near my house. I live in a huge master planed community in Houston of just over 100,000. My area has everything. Huge mall, all the trendy shops and every store you can think of in my area. But no SmashBurger or 5 Guys or anything like it. I had to drive 20+ miles to odd parts of town to get find them. "Oh well" I thought. No biggie. Then today I was driving down a road in the back of my area 5 minutes from my house and saw a new place opened called JAX Burgers. "Ahhh" I thought. Someone has opened their own "trendy" burger joint or it's a new franchise. So I stopped in to try it so I could see what the scoop is.
I walk in and I can tell it's not a franchise. A new franchise would have everything brand spanking new, 20 more employees working than is needed behind the counter and a manager there to kiss my butt the minute I walked in. Not this place. I walk in, it's somewhat busy, there's nobody behind the counter and there's a 5 year old kid crawling on the counter next to the cash register. It's obviously a mom and pop operation. Being a new place, and they are somewhat busy and nobody to take my order I just took the time to look over the menu and take a picture of the kid crawling on the counter. So a lady eventually comes to take my order, she's looks to be in her late 40's and I'm guessing she must be the proprietor, and the kids crawling on the floor and the counter must be her kids. She takes my order and I sit down and notice a website URL on the wall so I check out the website on my iPhone. I notice that this is the 3rd location. Interesting. As I sit there waiting someone asks the lady how she came up with the name "JAX" She points to the two kids crawling on the floor and says it's named after her two sons "Jake" and "Max". Ah...so she is an owner. Interesting. So I thought it was cool that this lady is making an attempt to tap into the fastlane and start her own burger chain. Well done. She's doing a good job. The prices were similar to 5 Guys and Smashburger, her burgers and fries were just as good or better, and her costs were obviously WAY lower than what she would have paid if she bought some franchises. Her buildout was very simple and cheap but seemed to work. Very minimal. My only gripe was she did not replace the flooring. When I eat in a place I don't want to see dirty floors. She did not replace the flooring that was in place already. It was in bad shape and should have been replaced. It was pretty nasty.
Anyway, just my little semi-review and praise to someone trying to jump in the fastlane. Good for her. She has a good product and could do well with a few adjustments.
Anyways, last week I got to try 5 Guys. Pretty good, fresh toppings and fresh cut homemade style fries which I like. The place was pretty packed. Then the other day I drove out of my way to try Smashburger. Thumbs down for Smashburger. It was very average, and the fries were obviously cheap frozen type. Tasted just like Sonic and Dairy Queen fries. Gross. I would never go there again. Not like all greasy burgers and fries are not, but some times you just have to live a little and sometimes they just hit the spot.
OK, so I got to try them and got that out of my system. But I was left wondering why none of these burger places had a location near my house. I live in a huge master planed community in Houston of just over 100,000. My area has everything. Huge mall, all the trendy shops and every store you can think of in my area. But no SmashBurger or 5 Guys or anything like it. I had to drive 20+ miles to odd parts of town to get find them. "Oh well" I thought. No biggie. Then today I was driving down a road in the back of my area 5 minutes from my house and saw a new place opened called JAX Burgers. "Ahhh" I thought. Someone has opened their own "trendy" burger joint or it's a new franchise. So I stopped in to try it so I could see what the scoop is.
I walk in and I can tell it's not a franchise. A new franchise would have everything brand spanking new, 20 more employees working than is needed behind the counter and a manager there to kiss my butt the minute I walked in. Not this place. I walk in, it's somewhat busy, there's nobody behind the counter and there's a 5 year old kid crawling on the counter next to the cash register. It's obviously a mom and pop operation. Being a new place, and they are somewhat busy and nobody to take my order I just took the time to look over the menu and take a picture of the kid crawling on the counter. So a lady eventually comes to take my order, she's looks to be in her late 40's and I'm guessing she must be the proprietor, and the kids crawling on the floor and the counter must be her kids. She takes my order and I sit down and notice a website URL on the wall so I check out the website on my iPhone. I notice that this is the 3rd location. Interesting. As I sit there waiting someone asks the lady how she came up with the name "JAX" She points to the two kids crawling on the floor and says it's named after her two sons "Jake" and "Max". Ah...so she is an owner. Interesting. So I thought it was cool that this lady is making an attempt to tap into the fastlane and start her own burger chain. Well done. She's doing a good job. The prices were similar to 5 Guys and Smashburger, her burgers and fries were just as good or better, and her costs were obviously WAY lower than what she would have paid if she bought some franchises. Her buildout was very simple and cheap but seemed to work. Very minimal. My only gripe was she did not replace the flooring. When I eat in a place I don't want to see dirty floors. She did not replace the flooring that was in place already. It was in bad shape and should have been replaced. It was pretty nasty.
Anyway, just my little semi-review and praise to someone trying to jump in the fastlane. Good for her. She has a good product and could do well with a few adjustments.
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